Happy Hump Day

While outside with the dogs early this morning, I looked in the direction of the Gulf  and saw this huge rainbow.   Unfortunately, the camera doesn't seem to capture the full range of color of the rainbow and it was so large it wouldn't all fit in the lens of my camera at once.   But it gladdened my heart to have a cool breeze on my face as I gave thanks to a gracious God whose gave us a promise to never again flood the earth as he did in Noah's day......a promise he sealed by giving us the rainbow.  

 Too bad all the electrical lines were in the shot, but the rainbow is pretty evident behind them.

 And it reached so far over to the north.....

What pretty colors against an early morning sky.....

Wishing you a lovely day,
Debbie

Bug Fest

What a crazy weekend we've had!   Julie and Jarrad's dad and his girlfriend, Suzie, flew in for the weekend to help celebrate Jarrad's 40th birthday today.    Julie and Cam came over from Orlando and Dawn's parents joined us, too.  Saturday night 11 of us went to dinner at the Colombia Restaurant on Sand Key......yumm!   The food was awesome and laughter permeated the conversation.   We really did have a great time.

Then, yesterday in the wee hours before dawn broke, Jarrad and his dad headed out in the VW bus for the Pasco County Fairgrounds so Jarrad could participate in a Volkswagon show.   It's supposed to be the largest one in the southeast and it happened right in our own backyard.   The guys got up there before 7 so they could shine up Jarrad's VW bus and prepare for the judging which began at 8am.  I got there just after noon and had to wait in a one mile line just to get into the fairgrounds.   I was totally unprepared for how huge this event is and the variety of VW's in various stages of restoration.

I just so happened to run into Dawn and the grandkids as soon as I entered the fairgrounds and we met up with Jarrad, who was grinning from ear to ear.   Boy, was he ever in his element!

  There was a constant stream of folks who stopped to look and ask questions and praise Jarrad for a job well done.

 A reporter from the Tampa Bay Times stopped to admire the bus......

....and then he came back again to interview Jarrad!   Pretty cool, huh?

Dawn picked up eats for the kids as Jarrad's dad looks on.    Nothing like "anything" fried on a stick!

 For me, there was nothing cooler than this bus towing it's own matching camper.

 Look at all those windows and the retractable roof.

Isn't this the coolest little camper?   I just love it......

.....especially the original turquoise colored sink, stove and refrigerator!

 Jarrad's dad and I took a break and walked around the show to check out the huge variety of vehicles.   This bug really caught my eye. 

 Oh. My. Gosh!   Isn't that a gorgeous paint job?    I could have driven this one home right on the spot.

And I really love the cream leather interior with matching steering wheel and gearshift.   Very nice!

Before I left the show, I asked Dawn's  mom, Vicki, to take a picture of Jarrad and I together.   I'm always behind the lens and wanted just one shot with Jarrad to mark the occasion.   What a great weekend!

As I was walking back across the field to my car I glanced thru the chain link fence and spotted Jarrad chatting to yet another couple about his pride and joy.    What a great way to mark his big birthday...... 

Made me smile,
Debbie

Walnut Ink Trials

We have lots of walnuts

I know, who ever heard of walnut ink?  Until recently, I had never heard of it either.   But when we brought home all those black walnuts, I got online and found out that our ancestors used to boil the walnuts (and lots of other roots, etc.) to create their own ink.   Makes sense....it's not like they could drive the horse and buggy down to the local Office Depot and buy a bottle of ink.   So I figured....how hard could it be?    Again, more fits of giggles.   Oh, ye of little faith....harumph!

They're just under the size of a tennis ball

So I swung by our church's thrift shop and found a great pot with a colander insert that was pretty much perfect for the job and it only cost me $5.   Works for me!   

I filled the pot with walnuts and covered them with water and brought the whole mess up to a low simmer.   The water was a dark color within 10 minutes, but very diluted.

At this point I was wondering how long I should simmer the nuts to achieve the dark color I was looking for in ink.

Well, I cooked them for 8 hours that first day.   Yes, I said that first day!   As they cooked, the husks became soft and I used a metal spoon to remove them from the walnut itself.   By removing the hard walnuts, the dark husks were turning into mush, creating a darker and darker fluid and it was easier to stir the mess every half hour or so as I checked the pot to make sure the water had not boiled completely off.

I didn't even bother trying to open the walnuts that were removed from the pot.   Don't you think they would have been mushy or something after being cooked for 8 hours?  Besides, my focus was now on the ink I was trying to create.

 Well, I let the walnut mush sit overnight in the pot with the heat turned off.   And the next morning I turned the heat on again under the pot and gently simmered it for another 6 hours, checking it every hour or so to see how dark the liquid had become.   I lined a fine strainer with 2 layers of cheesecloth and spooned the mush into the strainer.   After letting it drain for a few minutes, I used the slotted spoon to push on the mess to get as much liquid out of it as possible.

 And this is what resulted......2 cups of really dark brown ink!   It really does work!

I also read  online that in order to prevent  mold forming you should store the ink in a jar with as little room for air as possible and add denatured alcohol to the ink, about 5% of the volume should do it.
Now it was time to test out the final product.

 So I pulled out the dip pen and nibs I bought along with some watercolor paper.

They even came with a handy little tin to hold all the different sized nibs so they won't get lost or damaged.

 OHMYGOSH!   It worked!    Now I just have to learn how to draw.....ha ha.

I tried all 5 nibs out but found the two I preferred were the two on the left hand side of the page.   The other three were much more difficult to manipulate and I kept getting blobs of ink on the page.   Of course, it would help if I knew what I was doing, but I'll just keep trying to learn by trial and error.   Imagine.....George Washington wrote all his papers with this kind of pen!    I have a lot of practicing to do.

Having a ball,
Debbie

Whispering Oaks Farm

As I was driving back from the airport photo shoot of Jarrad's VW bus last Tuesday, I noticed my throat was really scratchy all of a sudden.   Two hours later I was looking for the license plate of the Mack truck that had run me over.  Yup, the flu bug bit me.   Darn!    And it didn't get any prettier Wednesday or Thursday.   Now why in the world should I tell you all this?    Joel had taken a vacation day Friday in anticipation of us taking our RV up to the farm to stay there for the first time.....and here I was, sick, sick, sick.   Well, I've gotta tell you, unless I am on my death bed, there was no way we were going to miss out on this chance to sleep on our farm for the very first time.

So I took the dogs to the boarding kennel, loaded up the meals in the cooler and packed our cool weather clothes.   As soon as Joel got home from work Thursday afternoon we loaded everything into his truck and went to pick up the RV.    We were able to get north of Atlanta that night before stopping somewhere around 2am.   I think we were both excited to get back up to the farm and we kept egging each other on that we could drive "just a little bit further".   Finally, we pulled into an overflowing rest area and squeezed in between 2 big rig trucks and fell into bed in the RV.   The next morning dawned cool and crisp as we jumped back in the truck to drive the remaining 3-1/2 hours north.

And this was our reward........as we rounded the bend of our little country road we could look up the hill and see the bluffs, farm house, pavilion and barn coming into view.    We always stop the truck and just drink in the sight before proceeding up to the property.    It's still hard for us to believe that this farm is now ours!!

We were a couple of weeks too late to see Fall in all its glory, but there was still a bit of color around.   Enough for us to get a sense of the changing seasons.   And the lower temps were a big tip off, too.  It was in the 80's when we left Florida and the mornings on the farm started with temps in the high 30's and low 40's.

 Could the sky be any bluer?   The towering oaks make such a pretty backdrop for the pavilion.

This area leading to the woods reminds me of the park near my home town in Penna.   Long ago the residents of the town were trying to come up with a name for the park and they finally settled on "Weona Park".......get it?  We-own-a park?!    Ha ha......well, as I look at this part of the farm leading down to the dense woods, images of Weona Park come to mind, so I guess we could say Weona Farm.   Corny, huh?   There's no telling why these things cross what serves as my brain.   Sorry...

I know I keep showing you pics of the bluff, but I am fascinated with these rock formations.   There is just no easy way to show you how huge the boulders are.........without leaves on the trees they appear to be over 2 stories high.   Don't know what we're going to do with this part of the farm, but it's interesting to just walk around down there.

 Joel was so excited to back the trailer into the RV garage for the first time.

Wow!   Lots of room for the slide outs on either side and plenty of space to work around the trailer.
Time to unhitch.

Yup, this is going to work great to protect the trailer from the elements.  It's great to have a clean cement floor, a sturdy roof overhead and water and electric hookups on the side of the slab.

 While Joel was tinkering with the RV set up I went exploring.   As I walked thru the ravine below the bluff I almost fell on my you-know-what.   There were hundreds of hard, round dark spheres under my feet and it was like walking on tennis balls.   I picked one up and gasped.   They were black walnuts!!!   Oh.  My.  Gosh.

I had planned to plant a black walnut tree in hopes that sometime in the next 10 years we would see fruit from it.   And now we had one already  bearing thousands of nuts!   This farm just keeps on surprising us with things we didn't even know existed there.   I ran back up to Joel and we grabbed some bags and went to work picking up a few walnuts to take back home.  

 Walnuts were everywhere.   Over here..........and

 ...over here.........and all over the ground.   There was no way we could get them all.   At least not this trip.

Joel lugged the bags up hill and we laid all the walnuts out on the picnic table to dry as it had rained the day before and they were a little soggy.   Can't wait to bake some goodies with these.

 I remember as a little kid going with my mom and Aunt Gladys to their childhood farm to pick up black walnuts from the ground.   We would take them home and sit on the pavement with a hammer and break thru the hard black shell to expose the walnut shell inside.   Can you imagine how tickled I was that now Joel and I could do that on our own farm?

 After breaking away the black outer husk, the walnut looked like any walnut you buy at the store in the shell....it was just a little damp.

So I whacked the inside shell with the hammer and voila!    Walnut meat!   It tasted so sweet and now I can't wait to break into the remaining nuts we brought back home with us.    Mom and her sister used to keep the walnuts to use in baking Christmas cookies and banana walnut bread all winter.    Yum, can't wait to repeat that heritage.

 Here's a view looking back at the pavilion on your left and the barn in the center.  I just can't seem to get my fill of all the splendor we saw on the land.   

And I couldn't believe that pears were still dropping from the pear tree.  I was able to retrieve several more for us to eat.   These were even bigger than the ones we picked on our last trip to the farm.  Today I'm baking some pear bread from the pears we picked.

This was the first time we checked our mailbox for any mail.   Love all those "firsts".    We had quite a busy day for our first full day on the farm.    We certainly slept well that first night.   It was so wonderfully quiet and dark that we slept a full 12 hours.    Ah, that felt so good.

 Early the next morning Joel grabbed a cup of coffee and I pulled out my camera as we walked the land in the mist.  We could hear cattle lowing in the field across the street.    And somewhere in the distance was a faint crowing of a rooster waking up another farm.

 Don't the oaks behind the pavilion form a pretty backdrop?   And the breeze was constant so the leaves were all rustling.    We just love that sound.

Beautiful color everywhere......

 I think I'm in love...........with these trees..........

 ...and the mist...........

 ...and the early morning light.........

...and the blessing of being able to enjoy it all.   We just can't seem to soak up enough of the beauty of this land.

 Happy guy.....with a cup of Joe...........in the cool morning.........wearing jeans........on his farm.   Yup!   Happy guy!  He says it just doesn't get any better than this.

 Looking down into the valley toward the rising sun.

 Our neighbors rustic gate for the cattle.    Just some more every day bucolic farm life scenery.

 The grape arbor certainly looks a lot different stripped of all it's leaves.   The farmer told us we have to trim it back in February.   That should be interesting....in the cold.....possibly snow?    Hope we can get up there to do that on time.

Here's a view of the house from near one far front corner of the land.   Just a simple little farmhouse.  Perfect for two.   And a little white fluffy dog.   And some occasional company.

 Joel stood at one of the survey corner markers, looking down into the "hollar" as our farmer called it.   We have yet to explore these woods which make up over half of the farm.    As we were standing there Joel said that he loved how the breeze whispered through the oak trees.   And he looked at me and said, "How about we name the farm Whispering Oaks Farm?"    Perfect!  We just smiled at each other and agreed the name was going to stick.

 I love the name.....been trying to think of an appropriate one ever since we bought the farm and now we have a name that means something to both of us.    When Joel was a kid, his parents built a Christian youth camp on the eastern shore of Maryland.   His dad went in there with a bulldozer on raw land and built cabins, a pool, a dining hall and much more.    Joel has such fond memories of those years on that land with his folks and the name of the camp was White Oak Bible Camp.   Joel's mom even saved 2 twin quilts that had been hand made just for beds in one of the cabins by women from local churches.    The quilts are green with large white oak leaves in each block.    She gave the quilts to me shortly after we got married when she realized I loved all things quilt-y and I treasure them as a family heirloom.

Now, those quilts will have a double meaning as they are oak leaves representing the trees on our farm.   Someday I hope to find 2 old metal beds and put them on the sleeping porch of the farmhouse.   Those quilts will take a place of honor covering the beds and I'll smile whenever I see them put to use once again.....this time for our grandkids to sleep under them when they visit.

 It'll be fun to tromp thru the woods and explore whatever is down there......some other day.    Today I was not feeling so great and barely had enough energy to just do our little walk around.

We even bought boots at Tractor Supply this trip for walking around in there.    Maybe next trip we'll go exploring further into the woods.   It goes back really far and who knows what is back there?

 Another view of the house, one of the grape arbors and the pavilion.   

Weona Park....oops, Weona Farm little park-like area, all cleared out next to the woods.

 Ok, I'm going to have to explain this one to ya'.    For those of you who have never used an RV, there are certain tanks under the unit that hold water from your shower and sinks, and then another one called the black water tank holding, well, you can use your imagination here.    Those tanks have to be emptied or else you'll have a real problem.    Joel has spent hours trying to figure out how to get our black water tank contents emptied out.....uphill......100 feet.....to the septic connection by the pavilion.

The solution he came up with is a macerator pump, which grinds up the um, er, um, contents of the black water tank, and then with the push of the red button the pump pushes the slush thru the long hose in the pic above to the septic connection.    And he is grinning because it took him an hour to get it all figured out...........and it worked!!!     I had the dubious honor of standing at the other end making sure the hose didn't pop out of the pvc pipe.    Guess the perk for me was that I was so congested from my cold that I couldn't smell a thing.   Ha!   Gotta love a man and his toys....especially when everything works the way it is supposed to work.

 Unfortunately, all too soon it was time to pack up our walnuts and dirty laundry and head back home.   Two nights was too short and we are already counting the days until we go back up to the farm again.    The drive isn't exactly fun, but the time spent in the fresh air makes the trip worthwhile.

Bye, bye Whispering Oaks.   We'll be back soon.   And maybe this trip we'll bring our porch rockers so we have something to sit on our porch and enjoy the view.

Thanks for visiting,
Debbie